ku # 790 ~ it's a dog's life # 2

Licking ~ Bog River / Low's Lake primitive area - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

civilized ku # 588 ~ it's a dog's life

Ryder's perch ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

civilized ku # 586 ~ dumb ass SOBs, or, why I believe that we're all fucked

Concentrate ~ Lake Placid Resort GC - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenIt has been opined that one can tell much about a person by observing the manner in which he/she plays the game of golf.

Golf is very much a game of rules (34 rules, to be exact) and knowing/playing by the rules is a very important part of the game. However, most amateurs that I have seen/played with either don't know the rules or, most commonly, totally ignore them.

Now, it must be stated that most amateurs are playing just for fun of it - they don't have an official USGA handicap and they don't play in any organized/sanctioned form of competition. So, they and their playing partners just sort of make up/ignore the rules as they go along. There is no real ethical problem in this behavior as long as they are all playing by the same rules and they are playing the game for their own enjoyment and not against other golfers who are playing by the real rules.

However, there are also a number of informal rules of golf that fall under the heading of golf etiquette, the most prominent of which are: 1) replace all divots (on the fairways, in the rough), 2) repair all pitch marks (on the greens), 3) let faster players play through (when there are open holes in front of you).

These 3 rules of golf etiquette are about as simple as it gets. It doesn't require a degree in Rocket Science to understand that following them is very beneficial not only to a golf course, in and of itself, but also to individual golfers themselves. No golfer likes to have his/her ball come to rest in a divot (one of the rules is to play the ball where and as it lies - the rule that must be the one that most amateurs totally ignore most frequently), putt on a pockmarked green, or stand around waiting to hit the ball while slow players in front of them hold up the works.

However, those 3 rules of golf etiquette are the ones that the overwhelming majority of amateur golfers totally ignore.

Now, if most golfers do not play by 1) the official rules of the game and 2) the self-beneficial rules of golf etiquette, and how one plays the game is indicative of how one lives his/her life, we are all fucked. And I don't mean fucked, re: playing golf. I mean fucked in the game of life.

BYW, take notice of the handwritten word "concentrate" on the sign in the above picture. Even though, in addition to the sign that states quite clearly that "entering this area is prohibited", the environmentally sensitive area is roped off, golfers, in order to find a poorly played golf ball, enter and stomp all over this area all the time - fuck the sign, fuck the rule, and fuck the environmentally sensitive area.

In fact, they fuck it all because they want to do whatever it is they want to do.

What chance do the rest of have in the game?

ku # 787-89 ~ rain

Jay Range ~ Jay, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Rt. 9 parking area ~ Jay, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Rt. 9 ~ near Upper Jay, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

The word “photography” can be interpreted as “writing with light” or “drawing with light.” Some photographers are producing beautiful photographs by drawing with light.. Some other photographers are trying to tell something with their photographs. They are writing with light. ~ Philippe Halsman

civilized ku # 584-85 ~ small town news follow up

Great Room / Lobby ~ Crowne Plaza Hotel, Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenOn yesterday's entry about the near tragic events now known as the Great Pool Table Rescue, Jimmi Nuffin asked:

Was the "Great Room" really great? If it was, compared to what?

The Great Room, albeit of more modern rustic design, is rather great by comparison to, say, for example, your living room.

Mary Dennis asked:

...how was the young boy finally extricated from his predicament? And how is it even possible to get your hand stuck in a pool table??

Don't know how the boy's arm got stuck other than to say that 9-ish year old boys are rather clever that way. As for how the arm was extricated, I believe, but did not witness, the use of a powered screwdriver and bit of pool table disassembly did the trick.

And, Mary, "absurdist Norman Rockwell vibe" is a spot-on life-imitating-art observation - even if Rockwell's pictures were of the art-imitating-life variety.

civilized ku # 583 ~ small town news

Pool table drama ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenSo the wife and I are sitting at the bar - she's doing the conference client schmooze thing - at our hotel (in the Great Room) when, for no apparent reason, a fire truck and a bunch of volunteer firemen in their own cars, along with a local cop, pull up in front of the place. Whereupon, they rush into the Great Room and up the stairs to a balcony over the bar.

There was no smoke, screaming, or commotion of any kind that would indicate the reason for their presence. Curious fellow that I am, I grabbed my camera and up to the balcony I went only to find a kid with his arm stuck in the corner pocket of a pool table.

He was cool as a cucumber while what seemed like a small army of would-be rescuers scurried and milled about. I immediately started making pictures. I stopped making pictures just after the ax and pry bar appeared at the pool tables edge, primarily because I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe...

...like what? were they really going to hack the pool table apart or try to pry his arm out the corner pocket?

ku # 781-85 ~ dark and moody

Golf course ~ Lake Placid Resort - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Parking lot ~ Lake Placid - in the Adirondack PARK• click to embiggen
Tree, hedges, benches ~ Lake Placid - in the Adirondack PARK• click to embiggen
Hotel room view # 1 - Mirror Lake ~ Lake Placid - in the Adirondack PARK• click to embiggen
Hotel room view # 2 ~ Lake Placid - in the Adirondack PARK• click to embiggenThis past Monday and Tuesday I stayed in Lake Placid. The wife had a 3-day conference with a comp room so we turned it into a mini-getaway. Mini, as in, short. Mini, as in, 20 miles away from home.

On both days the weather was very changeable, to say the least. That made for some very interesting light and atmospheric conditions with which I had a number chance encounters ....

A photographer must be prepared to catch and hold on to those elements which give distinction to the subject or lend it atmosphere. They are often momentary, chance-sent things: a gleam of light on water, a trail of smoke from a passing train, a cat crossing a threshold, the shadows cast by a setting sun. Sometimes they are a matter of luck; the photographer could not expect or hope for them. Sometimes they are a matter of patience, waiting for an effect to be repeated that he has seen and lost or for one that he anticipates. Leaving out of question the deliberately posed or arranged photograph, it is usually some incidental detail that heightens the effect of a picture – stressing a pattern, deepening the sense of atmosphere. But the photographer must be able to recognize instantly such effects. ~ Bill Brandt

ku # 780 ~ missing the forest for the trees (scenic mountains, woods, and waters)

Going for a swim ~ Bog River / Low's Lake region - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenThere is an Adirondack organization (that shall remain unnamed because I am not trying to denigrate it, per se) that conducts a number of photo workshops / seminars every year. For the most part (not exclusively but, in fact, primarily), it is very firmly ensconced in / dedicated to the Ain't-Nature-Grand School of "pure" landscape / nature picture making.

CAVEAT• As most here at The Landscapist know, the Ain't-Nature-Grand School of picture making is not one that I embrace or endorse. And, as I have oft stated regarding that school (and any other), "to each his own". However, that doesn't mean that I don't have an opinion on the subject, so ....

MY OPINION on the subject • As part of an aforementioned-organization's advert for one of its workshops, they state (in part):

...Participants will immerse themselves in photographing a wide variety of Adirondack landscapes chosen for their diverse possibilities - scenic mountains, woods, and waters that make the Adirondacks so distinctive...

Now, that sounds innocuous enough but, in fact, it is so far off the mark regarding what "make(s) the Adirondacks so distinctive" that it would be laughable if it weren't so totally wrong - when it comes to the geography, topography, flora and fauna bio-diversity (aka, scenic mountains, woods, and waters), the Adirondacks is NOT so distinctive relative to what is also found in a number of other neighboring regions in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, southern-most Quebec, as well as farther away places such as the upper Michigan Peninsula and the Lake Superior / Minnesota Boundary Waters region.

That is not say that there are no distinctive differences between the Adirondacks and the aforementioned places places. But, in fact, those differences are much more minor than major and it would not be misleading to state that most, not all, pictures from one region are much like those pictures made in any other region.

That said, to argue the point about distinctive differences, scenic mountains, woods, and waters wise, from one aforementioned region to another really does miss the point about what genuinely and uniquely makes the Adirondacks ever so different from any of those other regions - the state lands within Adirondack PARK are protected as "forever wild" by an Amendment to the NYS Constitution. In addition to that protection, all of the lands within the Adirondack PARK are governed, land use wise, by the rules and regulations of Adirondack PARK Agency.

Consequently, in a PARK (the biggest state park in the lower 48 states) that encompasses 102 towns and villages with a year-round population of 130,000 residents, all spread out in a PARK of over 6,000,000 acres (Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon and Glacier National Park would all fit into it with room to spare), the real distinctive characteristic of the Adirondack PARK is the unique-on-the-planet patch-quilt of the natural world and humankind that is organized around the idea of sustainability*.

Therefore, to my eye and sensibilities, pictures that attempt to illustrate "the Adirondacks (as) so distinctive" by picturing only "pure" landscapes - scenic mountains, woods, and waters without evidence of and/or the presence of humankind - are completely missing the mark regarding the real distinctive and unique nature of the Adirondack PARK.

*sustainability is the capacity to endure. In ecology the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. For humans it is the potential for long-term maintenance of well being, which in turn depends on the well being of the natural world and the responsible use of natural resources.